"'Do not go gentle in that good night.' That’s the line that I see dancing behind the blind Bartimaeus story, this man persistent enough to not be left in the dark. Dylan Thomas was the Welsh poet who authored the furious, defiant lines: "Do not go gentle into that good night…burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.' How was Bartimaeus’ sight restored? By a power outside himself - you can count on that. Yet, at the same time, there was a faith-shaped persistence at work; a hope-filled determination; a refusal to go gentle into that good night.

"There’s no assurance that you will always get what you seek - if ever; no guarantee that the door will always open, that your prayer will be answered as you expect, or that your 'faith will always become sight' - to quote an appropriate New Testament turn of phrase. Life is far too unpredictable and exceedingly mysterious for any of that. And anyone trying to tell you different or sell you a warranty is just trying to, again to use an appropriate phrase, to rob you blind. But as people of faith - we have to have a little faith." (See Mark 10:46-52)